Starbuck’s Slovenian legacy

At the young age of only 17 years, it is hard to talk about the legacy. However, Matic ‘Starbuck‘ Dejak left his in Slovenia on Sunday, when he joined up with the German powerhouse mousesports. It is not everyday that a players from Slovenia, a small country in the middle of Europe with 2 million people, gets such recognition in the world of esports.

In fact, the last Slovenian gamer to hit such heights as Dejak, is probably Jaka ‘JaKaZc‘ Kejžar, a three-time QuakeCon champion with Check6, Dignitas and Team MAMUT.si in Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and the most successful videogamer from Slovenia.

Boštjan ‘miso‘ Krajnc is another name that is familiar among the true old school gamers, and Krajnc is the first one to put Slovenia on the world map of esports. He was a force to reckon with in the golden age of Quake3, coming out of nowhere to make a name for himself as one of the best team players at the time, representing Slovenia, a few local teams, TuLLs and 4Kings on many online and offline tournaments around the globe.

In the modern days of esports, where live streams and video interviews are a part of the everyday, Slovenia does have a few bright spots, like Matic ‘Zarmony‘ Mikec, who played for aAa as a stand-in on LCS Summer Promotion 2013 in League of Legends, and now represents TCM Gaming in Infinite Crisis.

Nonetheless, nobody has or had a potential of Starbuck, who is considered to be a Top20 foreign StarCraft2 player, and contrary to JaKaZc, miso and Zarmony, is competing in a 1vs1 game, which makes the success even more worthwhile. When Dejak joined Vega Squadron in May 2013, he was a young, but ordinary Grandmaster Zerg. He started his raid on the top in July 2013, when he famously won against Genius in 2013 WCS Season 2 Europe Challenger League qualifiers with a drone stack and an innovative Swarm Host play. He went on to beat Grubby and LucifroN to grab the ticket to 2013 WCS Season 3 Europe Premier League Round of 16, where he made his first international live appearance.

What followed was eight Months of constant improvements and good results with Team MiA, the oldest active Slovenian gaming team, where he continued with strong showings and started to become one of the top StarCraft2 players from Europe, leading his team to Top8 and Top4 finish on RaidCall ESL Euro Series, and qualified for 2014 WCS Season 1 Europe Premier League after knocking out HeRoMaRinE in the Challenger League.

Now, Starbuck is ready to continue his career with one of the best esports organizations around, mousesports, and looks to become the most successful Slovenian gamer of all time. However, despite the young age, he already left his mark as one of the most prominent Slovenian gamers with worldwide recognition, and it might take a while before another Slovenian player dethrones the young Coffee Zerg, regardless of the videogame. Watch out as Starbuck makes his way to the top!